Controlling Access to Ideograms

• US 20170318024A1
• Filed: 07/20/2017
• Published: 11/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ebersman, David, Lessin, Samuel, Stocky, Thomas, Vernal, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 10,009,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a client device of an author of a message, a request for a restricted ideogram to be inserted into a message; accessing social-networking information for the author; determining, based on the social-networking information for the author, whether the author is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; accessing social-networking information for a recipient user; determining, based on the social-networking information for the recipient user, whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and if the author and the recipient user are authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then sending, to the client device of the author, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client device of an author user, a request for a restricted ideogram to be inserted into a message;

accessing social-networking information for the author user stored in association with a social graph of the social-networking system;

determining, based on the social-networking information for the author user, whether the author user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram;

accessing social-networking information for a recipient user stored in association with the social graph of the social-networking system;

determining, based on the social-networking information for the recipient user, whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and

if the author user and the recipient user are authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then sending, to the client device of the author user, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises determining whether the recipient user is a member of a group of authorized users.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises determining whether an attribute of the recipient user meets a restriction requirement.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the restriction requirement relates to a demographic attribute of the recipient user, a profile attribute of the recipient user, a status of the recipient user, or a transaction history of the recipient user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the author user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises determining whether the request from the client device of the author user comprises an authorization code or token.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending of the information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message comprises sending information to render a user interface that allows the author user to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending of the information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message comprises sending information to display the restricted ideogram in conjunction with the message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the author user or the recipient user is not authorized to access the restricted ideogram:

sending a restricted-content response to the client device of the author user, wherein the restricted-content response comprises a warning that the restricted ideogram has restrictions associated with it.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the restricted-content response comprises a version of the message wherein the restricted ideogram is removed.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the restricted-content response comprises a version of the message wherein the restricted ideogram is replaced with a restricted-content symbol.

11. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive, from a client device of an author user, a request for a restricted ideogram to be inserted into a message;

access social-networking information for the author user stored in association with a social graph of the social-networking system;

determine, based on the social-networking information for the author user, whether the author user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram;

access social-networking information for a recipient user stored in association with the social graph of the social-networking system;

determine, based on the social-networking information for the recipient user, whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and

if the author user and the recipient user are authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then send, to the client device of the author user, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable when executed to determine whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises software operable when executed to determine whether the recipient user is a member of a group of authorized users.

13. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable when executed to determine whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises software operable when executed to determine whether an attribute of the recipient user meets a restriction requirement.

14. The media of claim 13, wherein the restriction requirement relates to a demographic attribute of the recipient user, a profile attribute of the recipient user, a status of the recipient user, or a transaction history of the recipient user.

15. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable when executed to determine whether the author user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram comprises software operable when executed to determine whether the request from the client device of the author user comprises an authorization code or token.

16. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

receive, from a client device of an author user, a request for a restricted ideogram to be inserted into a message;

access social-networking information for the author user stored in association with a social graph of the social-networking system;

determine, based on the social-networking information for the author user, whether the author user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram;

access social-networking information for a recipient user stored in association with the social graph of the social-networking system;

determine, based on the social-networking information for the recipient user, whether the recipient user is authorized to access the restricted ideogram; and

if the author user and the recipient user are authorized to access the restricted ideogram, then send, to the client device of the author user, information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send the information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message comprises the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send information to render a user interface that allows the author user to insert the restricted ideogram into the message.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send the information to insert the restricted ideogram into the message comprises the processors being operable when executing the instructions to send information to display the restricted ideogram in conjunction with the message.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to, if the author user or the recipient user is not authorized to access the restricted ideogram:

send a restricted-content response to the client device of the author user, wherein the restricted-content response comprises a warning that the restricted ideogram has restrictions associated with it.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the restricted-content response comprises a version of the message wherein the restricted ideogram is removed.